Jacques-Louis David was a painter born in 1748. He grew up into a prosperous middle-class family in Paris. In 1757 his mother abandoned him with his uncles after his father's death. Growing up during the "new birth", or renaissance was a powerful influence for David along with countless other famous artists. Most art critics consider him to be a central figure, if not the father of Neoclassicism. He also avidly supported the French Revolution, painting a variety of famous war and political figures. Growing up in France, David was virtually surrounded by beautiful art, whether it be from the architecture, or previous artist's painting. The city and its people inspired David a great amount. He was a distant relative of Boucher, who perhaps helped his early artistic progress as a pupil under Vien (1765). David was his protg and he put him into the public eye with his art as often as possible. He won the Prix de Rome in 1774 and traveled with his master to Rome where he spent six years. Soon after however, he abandoned his original manner of work, which used a Baroque use of lighting and composition for a stark, highly finished and morally didactic style. This art style was common between this century and the previous. Although Baroque art had its origins in the Catholic Church, the possibilities for propaganda afforded by the involving and illusionistic techniques of the Baroque style were not lost on secular patrons. This method of propaganda is precisely how David began to use his talent. In 1784 the change of style was confirmed by the Oath of the Horatii (Paris, Louvre), probably the most famous and certainly the most severe of a series of works which extolled the antique virtues of stoicism, masculinity and patriotism. In this work a man is holding three swords outwards to his sons, it conveys strong emotion and is filled to the brim with symbolism. The three brothers swear to sight to the death for their homeland. ...
